If [Nixie]’s setup looks familiar, it might be because we featured his plasma experiments a few days ago. He was a little cagey then about his goal, but he’s come clean with his desire to make his own FETs (a project that is his 2018 Hackaday Prize entry). Doing so will require not only creating stable plasmas, but also the ability to move substrates around inside the vacuum chamber. Taking inspiration from the slender and maneuverable instruments surgeons use for laparoscopic procedures, [Nixie] is working on a miniature arm that will work inside his vacuum chamber. The video below is a 3D-printed proof-of-concept model in action, and shows how the arm’s segments will be controlled by cables. What’s really interesting is that the control cables will not penetrate the vacuum chamber — they’ll be moved right through the glass wall using magnets.

We’re keen to see chips from [Nixie]’s home fab lab, but it looks like there will be a lot of cool hacks between here and there. We’ll be watching closely.

what kind of printer did you use?
I would like to make such a micromanipulator some day, but I always start doubting between printed plastic, or pieces of nitinol foil, cut in the right shapes and then miniature-spotwelded together…

a Cetus 3D with 0,2mm nozzle.
It was a pain in the ass to post process due to orientation and supports inside the tubes, and the gripper was malformed so I could not test it, but it sorta proved the point.